Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Too Close for Comfort ❯ The Beginning of the End ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ. BUT ONE DAY... Haha, just kidding. Not mine.

Reading the reviews really helped to get me motivated to write this chapter! This one is kind of serious, aside from the interview part, but other than that, things are getting pretty intense, phew! I'm hoping to make it as long as the last one to make up for lost time! Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed! Sorry for the long wait, enjoy!

11/27/11 – Revised.



Too Close for Comfort




Chapter Four: The Beginning of the End




12:00 P.M , Tuesday , Seiya Corp.




Vegeta sat in his office chair idly, mildly disturbed by events that had transpired that morning, but by now it was almost out of his mind. Feeling relieved, he looked out the large paneled window that covered the wall of his office, facing the rest of the department. He was surrounded by glass, as if in in a fragile little box barely holding him in, but this had become like his second home. Before he had become department head a year and a half ago, he had looked in upon this office to see Radditz sitting in this very chair...

Forget about it. He's gone now.

He had just finished writing the mandatory report that usually accompanied a night like the one he had on Saturday, and he was honestly glad it was over. That time had been the worst. He took an extra day to postpone the interview just in case the treatment took longer than usual, but to his surprise, it didn't take long at all. Only a bit longer than the last time.

He closed his eyes and laid his head back onto the spongy headrest of his chair that was flexible in all directions. He wasn't sure if he could keep doing it. His head was still pounding, but he had no external injuries, nor did he have any scars. It was always like this after another night like that, but he still had not adjusted to the cycle, one that was becoming much too regular for his liking.

That machine...

There was a sharp knock at his door and he saw Kakarott standing there. Vegeta tried his hardest to give the intruder a look that would express how much he didn't want to be bothered in that moment, but the tall bumbling man with wild black hair decided to come in anyway. Vegeta opened his mouth to tell him to kindly get the fuck out, but Kakarott was quick enough to speak before him.

"There's a Miss Bulma here to see you, Vegeta." Vegeta covered his face and pushed his hands up into his scalp before giving the messenger a fiery glare that would have alarmed anyone else, but Goku was quite tolerant towards Vegeta's abrasive behavior.

"What are you, my personal assistant?" Vegeta spat. His counterpart blinked slowly.

"No! Nancy is." He answered innocently.

"Well, no shit! Where might she have..." His expression changed from a scowl to one of deep thought.

Where, indeed...

"Nevermind." Vegeta said, waving his hand as if to clear the thought away. "Send her in."

"Who? Nancy?"

"No, idiot!" Vegeta stood, a livid look in his eye, watching Kakarott quickly scamper off laughing through the door. You'd better run, fool. He sat back down and turned to look out of his other glass window, this time the one facing outside, and was greeted by the familiar view of the city. He checked his e-mail and wondered to himself what kind of woman Chichi had sent to him. If she was as brilliant as her resume suggested, he might very well consider hiring her.

...But he guessed she would be ugly.

Vegeta had a little theory. Not one that he took very seriously, it was mostly his own sick joke that he used to amuse himself sometimes. Women had points that were divided up into all of their areas of possible attractiveness, and the more a woman had in one area, the less there would be left to put in the other categories. He figured most women of high intelligence were not much to look at because all of their points would be used up. This also applied to a woman's physical proportions. Large breasts? Small butt. Small breasts? Big butt. Large breasts, and big butt? Ugly, most likely, or with a possibly intolerable personality.

It was a directly proportional theory, and therefore, a completely rational one that he enjoyed bringing up in the company of Chichi, who of course thought it was completely ridiculous. He claimed it was common logic and that all men did it in their minds, and a woman who defied these rules was probably a bitch to make up for it. He would then look at her very pointedly, but she'd never catch on.

He had summed up his speculations of the moment that was to come by the time there was another knock on the door. Kakarott would always knock impossibly loud to annoy him, so he knew it wasn't him, but when he turned around, Kakarott was all Vegeta could see.

Kakarott opened the door wide, and held it open for a woman who had been standing behind him, who had been almost completely obscured by Kakarott's height. The woman stepped out from behind the him like a star making an entrance from behind a curtain. Vegeta blinked hard.

Wait, what?

"Hello, I'm Bulma Briefs." The woman who came out of nowhere smiled brilliantly, her cerulean eyes shining with genuine delight, or a trained imitation. She reached to shake his hand. He put his hand out by reflex alone and almost forgot to introduce himself.

"...Vegeta. Sit." He gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk, and returned to his office chair almost in a daze, not taking in any of his surroundings with only his thoughts consuming him.

This was definitely not what he expected. A miscalculation on his part, and a dire one at that. Though he had pictured the epitome of ugliness, and any average-looking woman would have looked better than the troll in his imagination, the dainty young woman sitting before him seemed implausible.

His thoughts seemed to race, as did his heart, which made him feel completely and utterly off guard, not to mention pathetic. Idiot. Get a grip. He forced himself to stay pensive, which was taking much more effort than usual, to his discomfort. He was not some lecher, and he usually didn't take a second glance at most women, but not only was this woman very pretty, she looked damn familiar.

He began evaluating her quickly, but he couldn't help but think every other moment that he was taking too long just looking at her and she must be getting suspicious of his gaze, however appropriate he made it seem. Long, wavy hair cascaded down past her shoulders, and she had big, blue eyes of the same color; an unreal shade of blue. Her pale milky skin seemed to glow in the sun shining in from his window, either giving her the illusion of having a shimmering aura or making her seem as fragile as porcelain, an almost childlike paleness, but as he quickly looked down at her chest he quickly realized that she was not a child at all. Quite the opposite, she was all woman...

He drew his eyes back up to her face. That thought couldn't have possibly crossed his mind. She was really very nicely shaped, but she seemed a little too perfect looking, too polished, and perfection was immediately suspect to his scrutiny.

It was only now that he registered that they had already shaken hands with one another, but he couldn't remember any of it, only that her hand had been so small and delicate. And warm. Very warm.

He forcibly snapped himself out of thought by looking down and then relaxing back in his chair, crossing his arms. It was an effort to restore himself to the complete professionalism that had been broken by the mere gaze of a woman, a gaze he returned harshly from his side of the wide desk; a distance that had never seemed so far away, especially when he only wanted to create a barrier between himself and those he met in his office.

Vegeta cleared his throat. "Well, shall we begin?"


-


Earlier that day, 9:00 A.M


Chichi entered the office Tuesday morning with much more energy than normal, to the surprise of her coworkers, who were quite accustomed to her often stern demeanor. She occasionally showed a playful side, like when she had referred to her orders as 'suggestions' saying that calling her instructions 'orders' or 'rules' would be crossing over into Vegeta's territory too much for her own tastes. Her reputation for standing up to Vegeta on a regular basis and him permitting it and not chewing her out for it was well known, and earned her the respect of everyone in the office.

Goku, or 'Kakarott', as his temperamental boss preferred to call him by his given name rather than his middle, noticed her unusually joyful greeting to everyone in the office. It had a few of her coworkers think oddly of her for acting so out of the ordinary, but none asked her what it was she was so excited about.

Goku knew who she was, everyone in the department knew. He didn't know personally how long she had worked there, but he remembered her being there ever since he started working there two years ago. She was respected by everyone in the office, possibly in the entire building. She was the one of the only women (who was still around, that is) who had never stormed out of Vegeta's office in tears or fear. She remained unperturbed by him, which was quite a feat considering how many women had succumbed to the irresistible urge of talking back to Vegeta.

Nevertheless, even though everyone knew her, Goku had never, not once in his two years of working there, spoken a word to her. He reasoned that this wasn't as pathetic as his inner self wanted to think, as there had been no particular need to converse with her, and he did not report to her even though their desks were relatively close to one another. He had never acknowledged her, and deemed her to be just another coworker. Until that day in Vegeta's office.

She commonly came by Vegeta's office for some reason or another, and as a result tended to interrupt their meetings constructed out of boredom rather than an actual purpose. He hadn't paid her any mind until that day. As he held the door open for her, he finally realized something about her that he had never thought before, and the force of it seemed like that of a great epiphany, like inspiration.

She was beautiful. He had heard others say the same of her, even sometimes in lewder terms, but he had never thought about her in that way before. She had long, very dark hair that seemed to be impossibly straight. As she walked past him he could smell her perfume, a sweet smell, but not too sweet like candy. Looking at her profile as she sat in the chair he had occupied only moments before and seeing her long eyelashes almost cast shadows on her cheeks, the soft intensity of her features had entranced him. He was rudely snapped out of it by Vegeta telling him to get moving, but he thought about it the rest of that day, and he found himself sitting at his desk thinking about it yet again.

The moment could have only been five or six seconds, and he remembered it as such, not bothering to stretch it out for he was not a romantic, but those five or six seconds he remembered clear as crystal. What it meant he still didn't know, but he found himself liking to watch her when he was idle, which was more often than not, nowadays.

He found that watching her today was particularly enjoyable since she was in such a good mood. Seeing her laugh so freely was a rare thing, and seeing it so much in one day was something he wanted to keep in his memory as perfectly as the one of that day he saw her in Vegeta's office, the day he realized he could be falling for the roughest and toughest woman in his workplace.


-


One hour later , 10:00 A.M


A loud knock seemed to echo around Vegeta's office and he slowly swiveled about in his chair. Chichi stood right outside the door. Surprise, surprise. What he hadn't expected was her unfamiliar facial expression. `That's a new one,' he thought. Even though he'd known Chichi for awhile and liked to think that he could read people much better than most, he didn't recognize the expression adorning her features. He couldn't quite place it, for it was a strange mixture between worry and apprehension. Then he realized what must have happened and immediately understood. Chichi shyly stuck her head inside and cleared her throat.

"I'm just delivering a quick message," She said monotonously. Vegeta raised his eyebrows, still stony. "Nancy is leaving early."

Vegeta crossed his arms and retorted almost immediately. "Why?"

Chichi paused for a moment and looked at the ground for a moment. It was almost too short to notice, but Vegeta saw the same look from before. Was it fear?

"I think you know why." She said sourly, and then quickly shut the door before he could reply. At first Vegeta remained calm, having no reply for her, but after looking down at his desk for a moment, and then at his watch, he sat up so quickly his chair shot out from behind him. 'Wait a second... '

Suddenly in a state of panic that could only be categorized as rage in Vegeta's emotional circuits, he ran to the door, flung the thick glass door open, and looked around wildly.

He spotted her walking quickly yet calmly walking back towards her desk. "CHICHI!" He yelled across the office, his voice coming out dark and gritty laced with his anger. Everyone in the office quickly turned towards him, and then to Chichi, then him again. She turned around with a huff with her hand on her waist, but once she laid eyes on his expression, her hardened countenance became soft yet knotted with tension, and her expression reverted back to fear. She dropped her hand back down to her side.

"What is it?" She spoke with surprising determination despite her apprehension, and her voice that held a strong foundation of confidence in it immediately calmed his burning rage to a simmer. If she had spoken in a tone any more insolent it would have only exacerbated the situation, but her voice had wavered at the very last second. He began analyzing the way her voice had sounded, his mind cranking with effort from matching an interpretation to it. For a reason only he knew, her reaction to this was very important.

He felt a sudden, unsuppressed rush of pride upon seeing her expression and that of everyone in the office turned towards him, and with a cruel smirk he stepped forward. Might as well make a good show of it... He had a walk of purpose and well-trained posture, his head tilted up as if looking down upon everyone he saw. It was at this point that Chichi realized what frightened people about Vegeta. His eyes were boring into her from yards away, the distance seeming shorter because of the intensity of his gaze. With every step that he took toward her, she felt an even stronger sense of foreboding growing in the pit of her stomach.

A million things went through his mind at once. Chichi must really believe everything people tell her... He already knew what had happened to Nancy, but there was a conversation he desperately needed to have with Chichi before anything else happened, before anyone else told her anything, and for her to walk out without even waiting for a response? It infuriated him.

Just who does she think she is? He shook his head, stopping directly in front of Chichi. His gaze sliced through her own.

"Come to my office. Now." He said in a raspy tone that was soft and threatening. He turned around swiftly and began walking back to his office with purpose, and Chichi followed nervously, feeling the eyes of the entire office upon her.

God, he's such a drama queen. Chichi sighed. She was trying to calm herself down into a state where she wouldn't blow up at him the moment the glass door closed behind them. He didn't have to get the attention of the whole office, did he? Wait, of course he did. He was Vegeta, the king of confrontation. What else could she have expected? She knew he reveled in the act of publicly humiliating another, which added to her own personal loathing of him that had been fueled by the story Nancy had told her earlier that morning. When she reached the office, she saw Vegeta waiting for her, holding the door for her with an arm gesture that traditionally meant 'after you', but in this case, the way Vegeta was looking at her made it seem more like, 'The electric chair is right here, take a seat.'

She walked in and sat in one of the two chairs in front of his desk, putting her hands in her lap, and breathing in deeply, taking in the air almost as if she had been holding it. Vegeta sat down in the chair opposite, and said nothing for a moment.

When he opened his mouth to speak, he closed it quickly as if he thought better of it. His eyes ventured to the side, and then he looked out the clear barrier that separated his private office from the rest of the floor, only to see almost everyone in the office looking at them.

God damnit, where are those fucking shades when I need them?

If looks could kill, everyone in the office would have been struck down in that moment by the glare Vegeta gave. Instead, half of them nervously looked away, not wanting to have a showdown with their temperamental boss, the other half was too curious to care and looked on anyway. That satisfied him enough, and he turned back to Chichi with a face set in stone, chiseled without compassion, completely emotionless. She stared back as bravely as she could muster, but her thoughts were invaded by the memory of her experience with Nancy in the kitchen, and her subsequent hysterical breakdown that forced Chichi to escort her outside to her car so she could go home.

The things Nancy had told her she could barely fathom and she did not want to even think about them, but she knew that what had happened had to have been Vegeta's doing, and there was an even larger picture that she was being left out of now. She assumed that he intended to fire her on the spot for knowing too much, or interrogate her until there was nothing left but the empty shell of a worker that Seiya Corp must desire of their employees, considering the complete and utter lack of information they gave them. Her gaze hardened at Vegeta's continued silence, yet at that very moment he broke it.

"Let's talk." His voice sounded tempered, as if he had deliberately softened it.

Surprised for a moment, she folded her hands into her lap and stared at him inquisitively, only to be greeted by a blocking forcefield forged by Vegeta, his features set in cement and completely unreadable. What does he expect me to say to him? Why would I tell him what I know?

"No, Vegeta. I would have told you before that little spectacle just now if I had something to tell you." She said forcefully, volatile. Vegeta's mental fortifications remained intact, but now his eyebrows furrowed in deep thought.

Her reaction had just affirmed his thoughts on her current state of mind, and also his previous assumptions about her changed attitude towards him. She was now afraid. She was trying too hard to be her normal hard-skinned self, and the result was a fake-sounding bravado that he could see through just as easily as he knew she saw through his facetious politeness in conversation. He held onto his control, knowing that Chichi frequently surprised him with her ability to manipulate a conversation into her favor.

"...Spectacle?" Vegeta asked provocatively, baiting her.

"Yes. Your behavior just now was completely unnecessary and I have no idea what you are so... enraged about-"

"Don't give me that crap." Vegeta said with an smirk, turning his head to the side and breaking eye contact. Chichi remained silent. Vegeta turned on the office jargon with a sarcastic tone. "I consider it a courtesy to alert you when I am displeased in order to ensure the efficiency of this office."

Chichi scoffed in disgust, crossing her legs and arms in defiance.

"I'll tell you this now so we don't have any misunderstandings on your part, just for the sake of convenience." He shot another glance out the large glass barrier partitioning his office, shooting down curious stares with his signature death glare. Chichi slightly turned her head to watched multiple heads whip around back to whatever they were doing, and she looked back at him once again.

Why does he want no one looking? Isn't this his show? His chance to humiliate me? Vegeta of all people wouldn't want anyone to miss him chewing out his latest victim, so why am I different? He only does this when he's about to...

Her mind immediately stopped in its tracks as Vegeta's eyes locked with hers. He leaned forward, folding his hands on top of his desk, looking smug.

"First of all. I am not your friend. I am not your equal. I am better than you."

Chichi raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth for a smart retort before being beaten to the punch.

"I do not have time to mess with your insolence." He spoke softly but forcefully, every word articulated perfectly.

She frowned. He's never talked to me like this before...

An idea suddenly struck her and she opened her mouth to speak, "But, wait-"

"Shut up." He growled. Offended, Chichi opened her mouth again to retaliate but he cut her off with his sharp glare and sudden tone, "Be quiet... Don't expect any respect from me. You are not my equal, and I am not like Radditz." He smirked at her.

Chichi reddened, biting the insides of her cheeks to keep her mouth closed.

"Oh yes, I know. I will not coddle you like he did, so be quiet for a moment. Agreed?"

Chichi nodded, nostrils flaring. He picked up a pen and began twirling it between his fingers, leaning back in his chair. He took a quick glance out the window, then spoke.

"I am not the idiot you must have thought me to be after you started snooping around six months ago. I've been onto you ever since you started spying on me. Don't try and look innocent or confused, it's pathetic. As if your silly little intrusions weren't obvious enough? Tch. I expected better from you. You are aware that you signed a complete confidentiality agreement upon being hired three years ago, a contract that included a clause stating that you wouldn't seek information that did not pertain to any of your current cases?" Vegeta cleared his throat and ran his hand through his hair casually, gauging her reaction. Satisfied, he continued. "As much as I know you would love to continue your little detective game with me, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you as your superior that you cease and desist. This is not negotiable."

Chichi lowered her eyes and instead focused on the woodwork of his desk.

"I'll take it that you understand?"

She remained silent.

"Do you understand?" He barked, making her jolt upward in her seat with surprise. She still did not answer, instead gazing at him with a stare of mixed emotion. His eyes raked her with a disappointed scrutiny.

"I don't know what has you so wary, but as much as I would love to claim responsibility for whatever it is that has had this silencing effect, I'm inclined to ask what you have to say for yourself."

Chichi pursed her lips and finally spoke. "There's something strange going on around here. I had thought so before, for a long time, but after you sent Nancy upstairs I just can't-"

"I did no such thing."

Chichi's stare turned into one of confusion. She finally opened her mouth, only to sputter out fragments. "But you... didn't...? She said..."

"No." Vegeta said with finality, silencing any further exclamations of doubt. "I did not send Nancy upstairs."

Chichi looked down at her hands in embarrassment. She had completely misread the situation at hand and Nancy's words, and as a result made a fool out of herself.

"But who else would've..." She began, but he cut her off with his hand.

"Unfortunately..." Vegeta looked deep in thought.

A sudden pang of worry struck Chichi, a thread of doubt dangling, wondering if maybe Vegeta would actually fire her, but she quickly dismissed the thought. She knew that she was far more valuable to Vegeta than he let on, and that he would not fire her for this particular infraction, as she hadn't really done any harm... Would he?

"I had hoped that this time wouldn't come for a while." Vegeta said. Chichi's earlier dismissal of her offhand suspicions suddenly came back full force. He wouldn't.

"The time when..."

Oh, God, I couldn't have really messed up this badly, it was such a bad idea to get mixed up in this huge mess in the first place. Oh God, what will he do to me now?

Vegeta eyed her for a moment. "...I promoted you."


-


NEXT: Bulma's side of the interview, and other fun stuff, like explanations. Yes, I do know where I'm going with this, just thought I'd assure you, haha.
R&R please! Feedback is cool. I love you all, thanks for all of the reviews. They motivate me a lot. :)

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